Nova Scotia health-care union talks have dates set

The last of the major unions in the province waiting to begin negotiations will sit down with their employer in October.

Several dates have been set for the council of unions representing health-care workers to meet with representatives of the Nova Scotia Health Authority. It's been more than a year since the province's district health authorities merged and the 50 collective agreements for unions expired.

In June, the health authority accused the unions of failing to bargain and asked the labour board to get involved. Tracey Ungar, director of employee and labour relations for the health authority, said there's been "a dialogue" between the two sides throughout the process and she's pleased they will finally meet.

"I know both sides are working diligently to be prepared so that we can sit down and exchange proposals as soon as we get together," she said.

Nova Scotia Government & General Employees' Union president Jason MacLean said the two sides were already talking about dates at the time the health authority called in the labour board.

"As I said before, the employer's labour board complaint was unnecessary."

MacLean said the delays in getting to the table have been due to the major overhaul of the health-care system's structure.

"We wanted to do dates, but we weren't there collectively as a group yet."

Major progress on essential service talks

Part of the delay has been because the unions didn't want to begin bargaining until essential service agreements were in place. Such agreements lay out the minimum required staff levels in the event of a work stoppage.

Although the agreements aren't finalized yet, MacLean said significant progress has been made and he expects there will be more between now and October.

"There's still a lot to do but we feel comfortable enough to get to the table to work things through."

Government not budging on money offer

The provincial government has already said the financial offer to all unions is what it is: two years of no increases followed by increases of one and 1.5 per cent, respectively.

Although doctors recently signed a new master agreement with the province reflecting that wage pattern, teachers rejected it and civil servants have yet to vote on the offer (their union, the NSGEU, is not recommending the deal and MacLean doesn't expect to set dates for a vote until at least next month).

Other things to discuss

While there appears to be no wiggle room on money from the government's perspective, health authority officials have previously said matters such as vacation time and sick leave must be discussed.

There is also the issue of streamlining those 50 expired agreements to reflect the new province-wide health authority. It's expected that will also include addressing geography: both the movement of services as well as the movement of employees within the system.

Until that happens, Ungar said the health authority is bound by the terms of the 50 expired agreements that all apply to various parts of the province.